Sears Accidentally Sells Filing Cabinets Full Of Sensitive Employee Data

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Aug 2, 2013 9:05PM

A Chicago man got a great deal on filing cabinets from a Sears liquidation sale, having also purchased sensitive data on hundreds of former Sears employees.

Hersey Mallory purchased three filing cabinets from the soon-to-be-closed Sears on E. 79th Street. When he looked inside he found social security numbers, banking information, termination papers, photos and other records.

"The company should have had a little bit more due diligence in order to protect these people," Mallory told NBC.

This was, of course, a mistake. However, Mallory actually had trouble returning the files.

“That was even worse, because we got some chick on there who started talking to me about ‘Well, I’m going to have to do an investigation,’” Mallory told CBS. “I said ‘What are you talking about, doing an investigation? Come over here and get this stuff.’”

Mallory said one representative told him to "leave the files on a loading dock at the Sears store on State Street."NBC writes:

Mallory said he'd tried calling Sears eight or nine times this week to alert them of the security problem.

"Take them off my hands and put them in the proper place before someone who's unscrupulous gets them," he said.

Sears has said it will pick up the files and offered a $100 gift certificate, which Mallory doesn't want.